East and West in the NCHSAA Boys' Soccer Playoffs –

East Bladen and West Bladen qualified for the NC High School Athletic Association boys soccer playoffs, scheduled to begin Saturday.

East Bladen, the No. 15 seed in 1A East, hosts No. 18 Mattamuskeet in the opening round. The Eagles are tied for second place in the Waccamaw 1A/2A Conference with a record of 8-2-2 and are 10-6-2 overall.

West Bladen, the No. 27 seed in 2A East, will play at No. 6 Bunn on Saturday. The Knights are 7-9-1 overall and tied for fourth place in the Southeastern Athletic 2A Conference.

The pairings were announced by the NCHSAA on Thursday afternoon.

West Bladen won six of its first seven non-conference games. Junior Jonah Bryan with eight goals and Alejandro Lopez Sandoval with seven goals led the Knights' offense.

Bunn is 10-3-2 and finished third in the Big East 2A/3A Conference. The Wildcats were the highest-ranked 2A team among the four in the league. Bunn outscored his opponents 49:17. Danilo Catalan-Jimenez leads the way with 10 goals in 12 games.

Saturday's winner will face the winner between Washington and Graham in the second round.

East Bladen was led offensively by senior G Algozy with 10 goals and 11 assists and freshman I Algozy with nine goals and 17 assists. Goaltender Colton Daly has a 1.592 goals-against average, which has seen the Eagles outscore their opponents 55-32.

Mattamuskeet is 5-5-4 this season and is tied for second place in the Atlantic 1A Conference. Senior Brayden Wayne leads the Lakers with 15 goals in 12 games. Mattamuskeet outscored its opponents 41-29.

Saturday's winner will face the winner of the East Columbus at Hobbton game in the second round.

Here are some other first-round pairings:

Southeastern Athletic Conference
No. 32 Princeton at #1 Clinton
No. 19 St. Paul's at No. 14 East Duplin
No. 23 North Lenoir at No. 10 Midway

Waccamaw Conference
2A: No. 24 Southwest Onslow at No. 9 Heather Trask
1A: No. 30 Southern Wake at No. 3 Pender
1A: #31 East Columbus at No. 2 Hobbton

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